Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have confirmed the discovery of the nearest rocky planet outside our solar system, larger than Earth and a potential gold mine of science data.

Dubbed HD 219134b, this exoplanet, which orbits too close to its star to sustain life, is a mere 21 light-years away. While the planet itself can’t be seen directly, even by telescopes, the star it orbits is visible to the naked eye in dark skies in the Cassiopeia constellation, near the North Star.

This artist’s concept shows the silhouette of a rocky planet, dubbed HD 219134b. At 21 light-years away, the planet is the closest outside of our solar system that can be seen crossing, or transiting, its star. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

HD 219134b is also the closest exoplanet to Earth to be detected transiting, or crossing in front of, its star and, therefore, perfect for extensive research.

“Transiting exoplanets are worth their weight in gold because they can be extensively characterized,” said Michael Werner, the project scientist for the Spitzer mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “This exoplanet will be one of the most studied for decades to come.”

This sky map shows the location of the star HD 219134 (circle), host to the nearest confirmed rocky planet found to date outside of our solar system. The star lies just off the “W” shape of the constellation Cassiopeia and can be seen with the naked eye in dark skies. It actually has multiple planets, none of which are habitable. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DSS

The planet, initially discovered using HARPS-North instrument on the Italian 3.6-meter Galileo National Telescope in the Canary Islands, is the subject of a study accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Study lead author Ati Motalebi of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland said she believes the planet is the ideal target for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in 2018.

“Webb and future large, ground-based observatories are sure to point at it and examine it in detail,” Motalebi said.

Only a small fraction of exoplanets can be detected transiting their stars due to their relative orientation to Earth. When the orientation is just right, the planet’s orbit places it between its star and Earth, dimming the detectable light of its star. It’s this dimming of the star that is actually captured by observatories such as Spitzer, and can reveal not only the size of the planet but also clues about its composition.

“Most of the known planets are hundreds of light-years away. This one is practically a next-door neighbor,” said astronomer and study co-author Lars A. Buchhave of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For reference, the closest known planet is GJ674b at 14.8 light-years away; its composition is unknown.

This artist’s rendition shows one possible appearance for the planet HD 219134b, the nearest confirmed rocky exoplanet found to date outside our solar system. The planet is 1.6 times the size of Earth, and whips around its star in just three days. Scientists predict that the scorching-hot planet — known to be rocky through measurements of its mass and size — would have a rocky, partially molten surface with geological activity, including possibly volcanoes. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

HD 219134b was first sighted by the HARPS-North instrument and a method called the radial velocity technique, in which a planet’s mass and orbit can be measured by the tug it exerts on its host star. The planet was determined to have a mass 4.5 times that of Earth, and a speedy three-day orbit around its star.

Spitzer followed up on the finding, discovering the planet transits its star. Infrared measurements from Spitzer revealed the planet’s size, about 1.6 times that of Earth. Combining the size and mass gives it a density of 3.5 ounces per cubic inch (six grams per cubic centimeter) — confirming HD 219134b is a rocky planet.

Now that astronomers know HD 219134b transits its star, scientists will be scrambling to observe it from the ground and space. The goal is to tease chemical information out of the dimming starlight as the planet passes before it. If the planet has an atmosphere, chemicals in it can imprint patterns in the observed starlight.

Rocky planets such as this one, with bigger-than-Earth proportions, belong to a growing class of planets termed super-Earths.

“Thanks to NASA’s Kepler mission, we know super-Earths are ubiquitous in our galaxy, but we still know very little about them,” said co-author Michael Gillon of the University of Liege in Belgium, lead scientist for the Spitzer detection of the transit. “Now we have a local specimen to study in greater detail. It can be considered a kind of Rosetta Stone for the study of super-Earths.”

Further observations with HARPS-North also revealed three more planets in the same star system, farther than HD 219134b. Two are relatively small and not too far from the star. Small, tightly packed multi-planet systems are completely different from our own solar system, but, like super-Earths, are being found in increasing numbers.

JPL manages the Spitzer mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive, housed at Caltech’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.

The Mars Society launched today an online crowdfunding campaign – via Indiegogo.com – to help raise $10,000 to rebuild and refurbish the green house used at the organization’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in southern Utah to carry out food and plant research important for eventual human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet.

The MDRS green house (commonly referred to as the GreenHab) was severely damaged by fire late last year, with MDRS staff determining that the facility was unfit for further use and needed to be completely rebuilt.

Plans to restore the new GreenHab include building a geodesic dome designed to house an assortment of food gardens and science experiments. More efficient, easier to use and healthier for plants, the new structure will ensure that plant and food research remain a key aspect of the overall MDRS simulation program.

A generous donation immediately following the GreenHab fire in December allowed the Mars Society to cover the cost of a temporary grow tent for plant research during the remainder of the 2014-15 field season and also purchase materials to build the new GreenHab dome structure.

Since then, Mars Society staff and volunteers have constructed a small sample geodesic test unit and completed a work trip to MDRS this past weekend to lay the building foundation, with plans to return to the Utah site in September to build the new dome in time for the upcoming crew field season, which begins in mid-October.

While the Mars Society has been able to raise part of the funds needed to fully rebuild and restore the MDRS GreenHab, the organization currently lacks money to equip the planned facility with the necessary tools to perform important crew research and testing.

MDRS staff intend to build new planters at MDRS to study dirt and regolith, install a hydroponics system that can eventually be converted into aquaponics, and purchase LED lighting, environmental controls, fans, sensors, Raspberry Pis and other supplies and equipment, all needed to ensure that crews using the GreenHab are able to provide the latest research in planning for human Mars exploration.

Author Marcus Alexander helped students from The Baird Primary Academy in East Sussex, UK send one of his Puffin fantasy books on a near-space adventure. The goal was to promote literacy and creativity with the youngsters. This video shows the launch, flight, and retrieval at sea of the payload, which include a camera that captured scenes from the flight.

Here are miscellaneous facts and comments about the project and the flight:

The Goal:

To send ‘Blood & Fire’ into space via a weather balloon to further boost students interest in literacy, creativity and the power of imagination.

To record the project and capture footage of the book as it reaches peak altitude.

To tie the act of sending a book into space into a school project that spans multiple key subjects: English, Maths, Physics, Geography, Information Technology, Engineering and PSHE.

To show students that if they can overcome the obstacles of sending a book into space they can then apply this same drive and application of common sense to overcome all future hurdles and barriers they might encounter in quest of their own dreams and ambitions.

Katherin Weeks, Vice Principal:

At The Baird Primary Academy, we are willing to go ‘above and beyond’ to ensure that Every Child Succeeds. Give us seven minutes of your time and we’ll show you an epic journey, including: inspired students, a Puffin fantasy book that’s out of this world, an adventure across the channel to recover the payload before it sank and, most importantly, the impact of our determination in raising pupils’ progress rates in reading.”

Marcus Alexander’s role:

Acrobatic author Marcus Alexander has been supporting the Baird Primary Academy as a Patron of Reading. Upon hearing one of the students remark, ‘When I read Keeper of the Realms I feel as though I’m taken out of this world…’ Marcus and the school Leadership Team thought this was the perfect opportunity to create a project that would tie students’ key subjects of Maths, Physics, Geography, Engineering and IT to the importance of literacy and creativity.

“Above all this project #CreativityTakesFlight is a drive for reading. By sending a book into space students have reinforced the importance of literacy and the principle that books can inspire dreams.”

The Baird Primary Principal, Ms Tenn:

‘3 out of 10 girls do not own a book at home, and 4 out of 10 boys do not own a book at home. This project is helping make reading exciting and highlight the importance of where literacy can take you – literally into outer space.’

The Reward:

As a ‘thank you’ for all the students’ hard work and diligence they signed pages of ‘Blood and Fire’ allowing them to say that their names have travelled to space.

The Event:

Students deployed a weather balloon containing ‘Blood & Fire’. The balloon reached an altitude of 35,000m before bursting. After 3 hours of total flight time the payload landed (splashed!) into the channel several miles off the Dover coastline. The project lead teacher, Roz Adie and Marcus Alexander raced to recover the payload before it sank and only managed to do so after hailing a speed launch from the Dover Sea Safari. Students were thrilled to find out that their names had successfully been to near-space and back.

The Project:

Students worked collaboratively to organise a working balloon kit that carried a 1,000 gram retrievable payload to an altitude of 30,000 to 40,000 metres. The payload contained book, camera, GPS systems and auto-deploy parachute.

Space & Aviation:

Space starts at the Karman line, 100 kilometres (62 miles) above the Earth’s sea level. We weren’t able to break that barrier but we did reach the stratosphere and ‘near-space’ altitudes of 35,000m. At this height we did manage to record ‘Blood & Fire’ floating beneath the balloon with the ‘black of space’ visible in the background. With students’ uptake in the engineering required for this project there has also been an increase of interest in aviation and aeronautics.

The Footage:

The day of the event was incredibly hot and unfortunately we picked up condensation on the camera at higher altitudes. To compensate for this we’ve combined footage from both the ‘official’ launch but also from the test launch that was done earlier in a central England location. (We were keen to test functionality and to avoid losing the cameras in a wet-landing.)

Results:

In conjunction with the Academy’s Improvement Plan, the project produced phenomenal results. Over the year literacy rates soared:

* 93% year 6 students made expected progress in reading

* 89% year 5 students made expected progress in reading

* Overall The Baird Primary Academy saw a 24% increase in reading compared to the previous year’s published figures.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., July 29, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Of all the planets in our solar system, none has captured our collective imagination like Mars — a mysterious, indelible part of our zeitgeist. And now National Geographic Channel (NGC); Academy Award- and Emmy-winning producers Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Michael Rosenberg of Imagine Entertainment; and Justin Wilkes and Dave O’Connor of RadicalMedia have joined forces to launch us into outer space with the global event series Red Planet.

Slated to premiere on the National Geographic Channel in 171 countries and 44 languages in 2016, Red Planet — which is set in 2032 and the present day — will be a unique hybrid of scripted and unscripted elements. The series will tell the epic story of the thrilling quest to colonize Mars and the first manned mission in 2032 with dramatic scripted drama and feature film-caliber visual effects, intercut with documentary verité and interviews from present-day scientists and innovators who are leading the research and development of space technology, preparing the way for our 2032 mission.

“With Imagine and RadicalMedia, we plan to tell a deeply human story of the first manned mission to Mars, that is cinematic in both scope and storytelling,” said Courteney Monroe, CEO, National Geographic Channels. “We hope to spark the curiosity of viewers by not only transporting them to another planet, but by embedding them with today’s leaders who are revolutionizing space technology.”

“We stand on the grandest stage of all time — the dark void of interplanetary space — with the brightest 21st century visionaries to light our way,” said Grazer. “By blending awe-inspiring imagery and narrative with present-day footage and interviews, we hope that Red Planet will change the way we see our place in the cosmos and the mysteries that lie beyond.”

“As humans, we possess boundless curiosities and an unparalleled spirit of adventure,” said Howard. “These intrepid explorers — following in the footsteps of pioneers before them — will spark our imaginations as we weave together the stories of both the past and the present Mars visionaries, along with the historical perspective on Mars.”

“How we’ll get to Mars, why we’re going and what happens when we get there are questions playing out in the minds of today’s greatest innovators, technologists and dreamers,” added RadicalMedia President Wilkes. “Our cameras will be there to capture the cutting-edge technology, design, science and ideas at the cusp of transforming not only Mars, but our own world as well.”

The chemical element lithium has been found for the first time in material ejected by a nova. Observations of Nova Centauri 2013 made using telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, and near Santiago in Chile, help to explain the mystery of why many young stars seem to have more of this chemical element than expected. This new finding fills in a long-missing piece in the puzzle representing our galaxy’s chemical evolution, and is a big step forward for astronomers trying to understand the amounts of different chemical elements in stars in the Milky Way.

This image from the New Technology Telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory shows Nova Centauri 2013 in July 2015 as the brightest star in the centre of the picture. This was more than eighteen months after the initial explosive outburst. This nova was the first in which evidence of lithium has been found. Credit: ESO

The light chemical element lithium is one of the few elements that is predicted to have been created by the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago. But understanding the amounts of lithium observed in stars around us today in the Universe has given astronomers headaches. Older stars have less lithium than expected [1], and some younger ones up to ten times more [2].

Since the 1970s, astronomers have speculated that much of the extra lithium found in young stars may have come from novae — stellar explosions that expel material into the space between the stars, where it contributes to the material that builds the next stellar generation. But careful study of several novae has yielded no clear result up to now.

Alpha and Beta Centauri, two of the brightest stars in the southern sky, had a new companion in late 2013 — the naked eye Nova Centauri 2013. This photo was taken by ESO Photo Ambassador Yuri Beletsky at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in the Chilean Atacama Desert in the morning hours of Monday 9 December 2013. The nova was discovered by John Seach from Australia on 2 December 2013 as it approached naked eye brightness. Nova Centaurus 2013 is the brightest nova to have occurred so far this millennium. This particular event is known as a classical nova, and is not to be confused with a supernova. Classical novae occur in binary star systems when hydrogen gas from the orbiting stellar partner is accreted onto the surface of the main star, causing a runaway thermonuclear event resulting in the brightening of the main star. In a classical novae the main star is not destroyed as is the case in a supernova. Instead, the star is dramatically brightened, and there is a simultaneous expansion of a debris shell. The nova appears in the picture just to the left of Beta Centauri, the bluer and higher of the two bright stars in the lower-right part of the image. The Southern Cross and the Coal Sack Nebula are also captured near the top of the picture. In front at the left is the ESO 3.6-metre telescope, inaugurated in 1976, it currently operates with the HARPS spectrograph, the most prolific exoplanet hunting machine in the world. Located 600 km north of Santiago, at 2400 m altitude in the outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert, La Silla was first ESO site in Chile and the largest observatory of its time. Links Image of Nova Centauri 2013 (non-annotated)

A team led by Luca Izzo (Sapienza University of Rome, and ICRANet, Pescara, Italy) has now used the FEROS instrument on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory, as well the PUCHEROS spectrograph on the ESO 0.5-metre telescope at the Observatory of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santa Martina near Santiago, to study the nova Nova Centauri 2013 (V1369 Centauri). This star exploded in the southern skies close to the bright star Beta Centauri in December 2013 and was the brightest nova so far this century — easily visible to the naked eye [3].

The very detailed new data revealed the clear signature of lithium being expelled at two million kilometres per hour from the nova [4]. This is the first detection of the element ejected from a nova system to date.

This video sequence starts from a wide field view of the Milky Way and closes in on the bright and famous pair of stars Alpha and Beta Centauri. Nova Centauri 2013 exploded close to Beta Centauri in the sky in late 2013 and careful study of the light from this star has revealed the first traces of the element lithium ever found in a nova. The final image in the zoom is a closeup of the nova taken using the New Technology Telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in July 2015. The nova is the brightest star close to the centre of the picture and is much fainter than it was at maximum light, when it could be seen with the naked eye.

“It is a very important step forward. If we imagine the history of the chemical evolution of the Milky Way as a big jigsaw, then lithium from novae was one of the most important and puzzling missing pieces. In addition, any model of the Big Bang can be questioned until the lithium conundrum is understood.”

The mass of ejected lithium in Nova Centauri 2013 is estimated to be tiny (less than a billionth of the mass of the Sun), but, as there have been many billions of novae in the history of the Milky Way, this is enough to explain the observed and unexpectedly large amounts of lithium in our galaxy.

This chart shows the location of Nova Centauri 2013 (red circle) in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur). All the stars easily seen with the naked eye on a dark clear night are shown. The nova erupted in late 2013 and was visible without a telescope. Careful study of the light from this nova has revealed the first traces of the element lithium ever found in a nova.

Authors Luca Pasquini (ESO, Garching, Germany) and Massimo Della Valle have been looking for evidence of lithium in novae for more than a quarter of a century. This is the satisfying conclusion to a long search for them. And for the younger lead scientist there is a different kind of thrill:

“It is very exciting,” says Luca Izzo, “to find something that was predicted before I was born and then first observed on my birthday in 2013!”

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is proud to announce the 2015 Space Elevator Conference!This annual event will be held at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington from Friday, August 21st through Sunday, August 23rd.

Seattle, WA, July 27, 2015 – Come experience learning, brainstorming, and international collaboration in an atmosphere of history, invention, and discovery! A Family Science Fest day will be held in conjunction with the conference.

3-Day Technical Conference

The twin themes of this year’s conference are “Carbon Nanotube Tensile Strength Progress” & “Marine Node Design Characteristics”. Papers will be presented on these and other space-elevator related topics. There will be mini-workshops on Research Activities and Global Cooperation, Marine Node Design Concepts, and Space Elevator Architectures and Roadmaps as well as the ever popular Shotgun Science Session and “Elevator Speech” competition.

ISEC is very pleased to announce that Mr. Mark Haase, PhD student (Chemical Engineering) at the University of Cincinnati will give the Keynote address at this year’s conference. His talk will address:

“Advanced Materials are critical for the development of the Space Elevator. Most prominently, the elevator cable will require a material with a much greater tensile strength than current materials. Carbon nanotubes are an exciting material for this purpose, showing high tensile strength at the nanoscale. Despite this promise, they have not yet achieved the needed strength. Nonetheless, meaningful progress has been made.

In this presentation, we will consider the recent progress in high strength materials; focusing on carbon nanotubes, but also considering other materials. We will also consider the progress in other properties of these materials, such as conductivity. While these properties are not directly related to the development of the Space Elevator Tether, they are likely to be important in the design and development of other elevator technologies.

Further, demand for these properties in other sectors will drive broader material development, making them important in enabling technologies.”

We are very excited to have Mr. Haase with us this year and we’re sure that his insights will be fascinating.

Family Science Fest

The Family Science Fest on Saturday, August 22nd will also be held at the Museum of Flight. This event is open to the public (no registration required) and is included in the museum admission price. The Family Science Fest includes Space Elevator 101 and 201 presentations, a youth robotics competition, exhibits from science organizations and clubs, and much more.

More details of the conference program and the Family Science Fest events are posted at http://spaceelevatorconference.org, including information on registration for the technical conference and lodging. Registration for the technical conference closes August 15th.

The Space Elevator is one of the most magnificent Engineering projects ever conceived. It promises abundant access to space and a multitude of benefits for humanity. Come to the conference and hear presentations and join discussions with people who are working to make space elevators a reality!

About The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC)

The International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) is composed of individuals and organizations from around the world who share a vision of humanity in space. Our Vision is a world with inexpensive, safe, routine, and efficient access to space for the benefit of all mankind. Our Mission is to promote the development, construction and operation of a Space Elevator (SE) Infrastructure as a revolutionary and efficient way to space for all humanity.

TMRO’s Space Mike covers the recent success of the Progress resupply ship as well as some of the first political rhetoric after the Falcon 9 launch failure.

* How Pluto Was Discovered – Space Pod 07/10/15

TMRO Chief Astronomer Jared Head goes over the history of Pluto, just in time for next week’s New Horizons flyby.

* Retro Space Data – Mariner 4 – Space Pod 07/20/15

This week Ariel Waldman talks about how impatient NASA JPL employees visualized the very first image of Mars from space using colored pastels and a paint-by-number scheme.

* Meanwhile, in the Rocket Industry– SpacePod 07/21/15

With all the excitement over Pluto lately, there may have been a few notable rocket industry updates you may have missed.

* The Pluto “Planet” Problem – Space Pod 07/24/15

TMRO Chief Astronomer Jared Head takes a look at the recent decision to reclassify Pluto to dwarf planet and if recent New Horizons data may be enough to reverse that decision.

TMRO Space Pods are crowd funded shows. If you like this episode consider contributing to help us to continue to improve. Head over tohttp://www.patreon.com/spacepod for information, goals and reward levels. Don’t forget to check out our weekly live show campaign as well over at http://www.patreon.com/tmro

Flowing ice and a surprising extended haze are among the newest discoveries from NASA’s New Horizons mission, which reveal distant Pluto to be an icy world of wonders.

Speeding away from Pluto just seven hours after its July 14 closest approach, the New Horizons spacecraft looked back and captured this spectacular image of Pluto’s atmosphere, backlit by the sun. The image reveals layers of haze that are several times higher than scientists predicted. Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

“We knew that a mission to Pluto would bring some surprises, and now — 10 days after closest approach — we can say that our expectation has been more than surpassed,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. “With flowing ices, exotic surface chemistry, mountain ranges, and vast haze, Pluto is showing a diversity of planetary geology that is truly thrilling.”

Just seven hours after closest approach, New Horizons aimed its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) back at Pluto, capturing sunlight streaming through the atmosphere and revealing hazes as high as 80 miles (130 kilometers) above Pluto’s surface. A preliminary analysis of the image shows two distinct layers of haze — one about 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the surface and the other at an altitude of about 30 miles (50 kilometers).

Four images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to create this global view of Pluto. (The lower right edge of Pluto in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage.) The images, taken when the spacecraft was 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) away, show features as small as 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers), twice the resolution of the single-image view taken on July 13.

“My jaw was on the ground when I saw this first image of an alien atmosphere in the Kuiper Belt,” said Alan Stern, principal investigator for New Horizons at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. “It reminds us that exploration brings us more than just incredible discoveries — it brings incredible beauty.”

“The hazes detected in this image are a key element in creating the complex hydrocarbon compounds that give Pluto’s surface its reddish hue,” said Michael Summers, New Horizons co-investigator at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Models suggest the hazes form when ultraviolet sunlight breaks up methane gas particles — a simple hydrocarbon in Pluto’s atmosphere. The breakdown of methane triggers the buildup of more complex hydrocarbon gases, such as ethylene and acetylene, which also were discovered in Pluto’s atmosphere by New Horizons. As these hydrocarbons fall to the lower, colder parts of the atmosphere, they condense into ice particles that create the hazes. Ultraviolent sunlight chemically converts hazes into tholins, the dark hydrocarbons that color Pluto’s surface.

Scientists previously had calculated temperatures would be too warm for hazes to form at altitudes higher than 20 miles (30 kilometers) above Pluto’s surface.

“We’re going to need some new ideas to figure out what’s going on,” said Summers.

The New Horizons mission also found in LORRI images evidence of exotic ices flowing across Pluto’s surface and revealing signs of recent geologic activity, something scientists hoped to find but didn’t expect.

Annotated image of the northwestern region of Pluto’s Sputnik Planum, swirl-shaped patterns of light and dark suggest that a surface layer of exotic ices has flowed around obstacles and into depressions, much like glaciers on Earth.

The new images show fascinating details within the Texas-sized plain, informally named Sputnik Planum, which lies within the western half of Pluto’s heart-shaped feature, known as Tombaugh Regio. There, a sheet of ice clearly appears to have flowed — and may still be flowing — in a manner similar to glaciers on Earth.

“We’ve only seen surfaces like this on active worlds like Earth and Mars,” said mission co-investigator John Spencer of SwRI. “I’m really smiling.”

Additionally, new compositional data from New Horizons’ Ralph instrument indicate the center of Sputnik Planum is rich in nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane ices.

Pluto and Charon are shown in a composite of natural-color images from New Horizons. Images from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with color data from the Ralph instrument to produce these views, which portray Pluto and Charon as an observer riding on the spacecraft would see them. The images were acquired on July 13 and 14, 2015

“At Pluto’s temperatures of minus-390 degrees Fahrenheit, these ices can flow like a glacier,” said Bill McKinnon, deputy leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team at Washington University in St. Louis. “In the southernmost region of the heart, adjacent to the dark equatorial region, it appears that ancient, heavily-cratered terrain has been invaded by much newer icy deposits.”

View a simulated flyover using New Horizons’ close-approach images of Sputnik Planum and Pluto’s newly-discovered mountain range, informally named Hillary Montes, in the video here: go.nasa.gov/1MMEdTb

The New Horizons mission will continue to send data stored in its onboard recorders back to Earth through late 2016. The spacecraft currently is 7.6 million miles (12.2 million kilometers) beyond Pluto, healthy and flying deeper into the Kuiper Belt.

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. SwRI, based in San Antonio, leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

For more information on the New Horizons mission, including fact sheets, schedules, video and images, visit: www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

Haze on Ceres would be the first ever observed directly in the asteroid belt. In 2014, researchers using the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory reported seeing water vapour spraying off Ceres, which suggested that it was geologically active1. At least one-quarter of Ceres’s mass is water, a much greater proportion than seen in most asteroids.

Bright spots pepper Ceres’s surface, but the haze has so far been seen in only one location — a crater named Occator, which has a large bright area at its centre and several smaller spots nearby. Mission scientists have been trying to work out whether the bright spots are made of ice, evaporated salts or other minerals, or something else entirely.

Some team members had been leaning towards the salt explanation, but the discovery of haze suggests the presence of sublimating ice. “At noontime, if you look at a glancing angle, you can see what seems to be haze,” Russell says. “It comes back in a regular pattern.” The haze covers about half of the crater and stops at the rim.

Effective time travel films must be able to set clear, established rules and be a means of achieving greater, emotional weight . Without the two, a film can be eviscerated by plot holes or become an unruly, empty spectacle. Predestination, an adaptation of an Robert A. Heinlein’s short story, “”—All You Zombies—”,” effectively coopts time travel and musings on fate and identity by anchoring the film emotionally with a stellar performance by Sarah Snook.

Predestination is paradoxically both stylistic as well as barebones. Temporal agents hop via a pedantically named device in the form of a violin case, and the effects itself are minimal but still satisfy. This is not a typical time travel thriller nor a brilliant, nuanced allegory, but something in between. Although the twist will shock and amuse, it is the gradient performance by Sarah Snook in transforming Jane into John that sets an otherwise shallow film apart.

Science fiction allows people to grapple with difficult and often nebulous themes, and although not perfect, Predestination does just enough to stand out in its dealings with time, fate, and identity. (David Tran)

Evan Dohrmann is a ceramics expert, an astronomy buff, and founder of the new startup Constellation Supply Co. He contacted me about his company’s first product: The Little Dripper Coffee Brewer, whose launch is backed by a successful Kickstarter soon to end.

The pledge rewards include a badge “inspired by the mission patches worn by intrepid space explorers” –

1. Innovative Design – The poster is inspired by the works of astrophysicist Donald H. Menzel and author H.A. Rey, and is designed and printed in the U.S.A. (Portland, Oregon).2. Glow In the Dark – A glow in the dark poster is appealing to kids and adults alike.3. Celebrate Science and Astronomy – Constellation Supply Co. is a ceramics business first and foremost, however we’ve chosen to celebrate our love of astronomy in everything we do. We believe this is something your followers will appreciate.

Nice to see Evan finding ways to combine his ceramics business with his interest in space and astronomy.

NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.”

This artist’s concept compares Earth (left) to the new planet, called Kepler-452b, which is about 60 percent larger in diameter.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone — the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet — of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

“On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0.”

This size and scale of the Kepler-452 system compared alongside the Kepler-186 system and the solar system. Kepler-186 is a miniature solar system that would fit entirely inside the orbit of Mercury. Credits: NASA/JPL-CalTech/R. Hurt

Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet. While its mass and composition are not yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky.

While Kepler-452b is larger than Earth, its 385-day orbit is only 5 percent longer. The planet is 5 percent farther from its parent star Kepler-452 than Earth is from the Sun. Kepler-452 is 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun, has the same temperature, and is 20 percent brighter and has a diameter 10 percent larger.

There are 4,696 planet candidates now known with the release of the seventh Kepler planet candidate catalog – an increase of 521 since the release of the previous catalog in January 2015. Credits: NASA/W. Stenzel

“We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon Earth’s evolving environment,” said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, who led the team that discovered Kepler-452b. “It’s awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth. That’s substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet.”

To help confirm the finding and better determine the properties of the Kepler-452 system, the team conducted ground-based observations at the University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory, the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, and the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. These measurements were key for the researchers to confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-452b, to refine the size and brightness of its host star and to better pin down the size of the planet and its orbit.

Since Kepler launched in 2009, twelve planets less than twice the size of Earth have been discovered in the habitable zones of their stars. Credits: NASA/N. Batalha and W. Stenzel

The Kepler-452 system is located 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The research paper reporting this finding has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.

In addition to confirming Kepler-452b, the Kepler team has increased the number of new exoplanet candidates by 521 from their analysis of observations conducted from May 2009 to May 2013, raising the number of planet candidates detected by the Kepler mission to 4,696. Candidates require follow-up observations and analysis to verify they are actual planets.

Twelve of the new planet candidates have diameters between one to two times that of Earth, and orbit in their star’s habitable zone. Of these, nine orbit stars that are similar to our sun in size and temperature.

This artist’s concept depicts one possible appearance of the planet Kepler-452b, the first near-Earth-size world to be found in the habitable zone of star that is similar to our sun. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

“We’ve been able to fully automate our process of identifying planet candidates, which means we can finally assess every transit signal in the entire Kepler dataset quickly and uniformly,” said Jeff Coughlin, Kepler scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who led the analysis of a new candidate catalog. “This gives astronomers a statistically sound population of planet candidates to accurately determine the number of small, possibly rocky planets like Earth in our Milky Way galaxy.”

These findings, presented in the seventh Kepler Candidate Catalog, will be submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. These findings are derived from data publically available on the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

Scientists now are producing the last catalog based on the original Kepler mission’s four-year data set. The final analysis will be conducted using sophisticated software that is increasingly sensitive to the tiny telltale signatures of Earth-size planets.

Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.